WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?Leadership is an interactive conversation that pulls people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment.

LEADERSHIP TIPS“The crux of leadership development that works is self-directed learning: intentionally developing or strengthening an aspect of who you are or who you want to be, or both.” Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee (Harvard Business School Press)

When author Barretta was promoted to director at a large software company, she was looking forward to attending her first leadership retreat.

Here is what she wrote about that retreat, "I'd wondered why the retreat coordinators had asked me to submit two pictures of my family a few weeks earlier, but when I walked into the conference room that morning I found my answer. Pictures of my husband and me with our dogs on the beach flashed across a huge video screen to the accompaniment of the uplifting song 'In the Living Years.' I stood there with my heart in my throat as my family photos shuffled among those of other leaders.

"Everyone stared at the screen. No one uttered a word. It's hard to express all the feelings that flooded my mind and body at that moment. Pride, certainly. Happiness, of course. And, to use a word you seldom see in a business book, love. The family-like bond that formed that day between me and the other leaders in the company fortified us through many years of tough challenges and hard work and accounted for much of the tremendous success we built during the subsequent years."

When author Barretta was promoted to director at a large software company, she was looking forward to attending her first leadership retreat.

Here is what she wrote about that retreat, "I'd wondered why the retreat coordinators had asked me to submit two pictures of my family a few weeks earlier, but when I walked into the conference room that morning I found my answer. Pictures of my husband and me with our dogs on the beach flashed across a huge video screen to the accompaniment of the uplifting song 'In the Living Years.' I stood there with my heart in my throat as my family photos shuffled among those of other leaders.

"Everyone stared at the screen. No one uttered a word. It's hard to express all the feelings that flooded my mind and body at that moment. Pride, certainly. Happiness, of course. And, to use a word you seldom see in a business book, love. The family-like bond that formed that day between me and the other leaders in the company fortified us through many years of tough challenges and hard work and accounted for much of the tremendous success we built during the subsequent years."